Friday, September 11, 2015

Like many of the vox populi I was skeptical of man-caused
climate change, but with so many on board the climate train it was hard not to
jump on. My brother was even more skeptical than I and in many ways we agreed
that the ice cores showed that carbon dioxide levels were higher in the past
when it was colder than they are at present.

Recently he bought a copy of “Climate Change: The Facts.” He
was so enthusiastic that I borrowed and read it.

The evidence against anthropogenic climate change is vast
and unimpeachable. The first part of the Al Gore/pro climate change scientists’
Holy Grail was the “hockey stick” graph that showed a precipitous rise in
global temperatures due to fossil fuel burning. In fact the overall energy
balance for the earth has not changed for the past seventeen years. So much for
that bit of nonsense.

Another bit of science fiction promulgated by those in favor
of anthropogenic climate change is the “heat sink” proposal. That is all the
heat that must have been generated by the carbon dioxide in the air must be
locked up in the ocean. But there is no evidence for that assertion; in fact,
the ocean temperature has not varied much more than a fraction of a degree over
the same time that the earth was supposed to be warming from all that CO2.

If the evidence weren’t enough there are numerous occasions
where the international panel on climate change has manipulated the data to
show that their models of man-caused climate change are correct. If this kind
of manipulation were discovered in any other professional body the scandal
would reverberate from pole to pole and around the Equator. But as some of the
authors in the book point out climate science appears to be immune from a
thorough investigation of not only the evidence but also the scandalous
assertions that are made in the name of the IPCC.

The silver lining in this cloud of obfuscation is that the
“undeveloped” countries have balked at having to meet the same carbon reduction
criteria that the biggies have to meet (USA, UK, etc.). What that means is that
the rush to limit, curtail or eliminate fossil fuel burning, especially coal,
is on hold for who knows how long.

All in all the book goes a long way to show that climate is
such a complex mix of gases, winds, solar radiation, oceans and other natural
elements that have nothing to do with fossil fuel burning that one’s carbon
footprint doesn’t loom as large a contributor to a catastrophic end for
humanity as before the writers and editor began to analyze exactly what the
gloom and doom anthropogenic climate change bloc was all about.

The statistics and charts in the book are explained in plain
English so most of the scholarly approach to discussing the evidence is
readable. But the book is not a page turner and one wouldn’t expect it to be so
since it takes a while to digest the information presented.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

“Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell” takes a six disc look at
the restoration of magic in merrie olde England.

The story begins with Mr. Segundes attending a meeting of
the Yorkshire magicians. They scoff at his desire to restore magic to a
reputable place in England. In fact they don’t believe that there is the
possibility of anyone performing the kind of magic that went out of style three
hundred years before the story begins.

The group of magicians attends a demonstration in one of the
local churches. Mr. Norrell is a bookish sort of magician who has been
convinced that to restore magic to a respected place he must demonstrate
something to the gathering. He uses the device of a metal bowl filled with
water and a magic incantation.

At the church the stone figures come to life and scare the
bejeesus out of the attendees.

As the story progresses, Jonathan Strange is set upon by his
erstwhile love to get an occupation. By chance he receives two spells from an itinerant
magician. He is able to make magic with one of them and decides to become a
magician as his preferred occupation.

With one problem after another all compounded and related to
a fairy that is intent on keeping magic where it has resided for the past three
centuries Norrell and Strange find themselves caught up in a struggle to
overcome the power of the fairy.

Strange is called upon to aid the army in its struggles on
the Iberian Peninsula. He does so and the government is grateful as is one of
the ministers whose wife was restored to life by Norrell.

As more complications pile upon the magicians they are
forced to confront the fairy in his netherworld of endless dancing.

There is a price to pay for the confrontation and even
though Strange regains his wife and the minister his wife, Strange and Norrell
are doomed.

In the last scene Strange revisits his wife as a reflection
in a fountain in Venice. She wants more, wants him to return to her, but alas
he cannot.

The final scene has Norrell’s faithful companion, Childress,
pontificating that Strange and Norrell have gone beyond the rain (one of
Norrell’s magical devices).

The episodes will keep your interest as will the
performances and sets, but by the time you get to disc number four you will
probably wish that the BBC production was much, much shorter.”

Friday, August 14, 2015

Harper Lee’s “Go Set a Watchman” probably should not have
been sub-titled “A novel.” It’s more like a collection of short stories: Scout
(Jean Louise) attempting to disprove Thomas Wolfe by coming home again,
reliving the past with her white trash friend Henry, going to a ladies’ tea and
finding out that she can neither abide nor fit in with this hallowed Maycomb
tradition, finding out that her father is part of a town council dedicated to
suppressing the blacks, getting strange advice from her uncle who really loved
her mother and finally coming to an understanding of who she is and why she is
the way she is.

Lee’s book has some interesting dialog; lots of southern
argot and characters who are somewhat memorable but in a way are almost
stereotypical of the south.

The book is not a page turner and reminds me of many of the
other southern women authors I read back in the day (Carson McCullers’ “The
Member of the Wedding” comes to mind). However, it does provide conversational
material for book enthusiasts, and will, no doubt be required reading in
academic circles.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Jules Verne wrote using the conventions of the 19th Century. That way of telling a tale appears stilted and formal and makes a modern reader want to skim as much as possible without losing the thread of the story. Whether his audience was awed by the spectacular abundance of flora and fauna might well be a moot point. Even so he went to great pains to include as much description of what the voyagers encountered as would fit. He may well have been paid by the word and that would be another explanation of the somewhat cloying abundance of this animal and that plant. So with those caveats in mind let us begin his tale of 20,000 Leagues under the sea.

During the 19th Century a strange phenomenon appears in the
sea. It wreaks havoc on sailing ships. Many think it is something akin to the
Kraken of myth that rises up from the depths to destroy wooden ships on the
surface. Academics and other experts present their opinions that drive to what
appears to be an agreement that it is definitely a crazed cetacean. Finally
it’s decided to send an expedition to find out exactly what sort of abomination
threaten seafarers of all nations.

A French academic, M. Arronax, his servant Conseil, and Ned
Land, a Canadian whaling man accompany the intrepid crew setting off to
determine the nature of the danger that ships face in the open sea.

Day after day and there is no sighting of the dangerous
creature. Then strange lights beneath the sea are sighted and the ship veers to
investigate, but the closer the ship gets to the lights the faster they move
away.

After many attempts the ship lowers a boat to give Ned, the experienced
whaler a chance to throw a harpoon to see whether it will have any effect on
the plated thing they have observed. Ned gives a mighty heave but his harpoon
simply bounces off the creature’s back.

As Ned, Arronax and Conseil try to determine exactly what
the thing they have attempted to harpoon it crashes into their boat and leaves
them adrift as it moves off and goes in pursuit of the ship. They are left
helpless in the wake of the creature. And they have little or no hope of
regaining the ship.

After much searching Ned, Arronax and Conseil find that the
ship has been sunk. They wonder whether they will be next on the creature’s destructive
schedule. And they are as the creature comes back to their location. Just when
all appears to be lost, the castaways are rescued by the very creature that has
caused their distress by destroying their ship and their long boat.

Inside the-what-can-this-creature-be is found to be some
kind of ship. The castaways attempt to communicate with the crew but all they
hear is a strange incomprehensible language as they are fed but kept in a
confined space not knowing what their fate will be.

At long last the commander appears. He is Captain Nemo who
has abandoned any further contact with humanity and the land. Everything that
the sea provides will be what he uses to feed his crew. The ship named Nautilus is propelled by electric power,
something that strikes Arronax as marvelous and mysterious.

After some time the castaways are treated to a survey of the
ship and even are invited to an undersea expedition using diving gear perfected
by Nemo’s genius.

The Nautilus
proceeds on its twenty thousand leagues under the sea journey with Arronax describing
in great detail all of the marine flora and fauna that they encounter.

Finally arriving at the island of New Guinea and becoming
fastened to a sandbank the Nautilus must
await high tide. In the meantime the castaway guests go ashore and find various
animals, birds and other flora for consumption. They also arouse the curiosity
of the natives and hurry back to the ship before they can be attacked.

High tide arrives, the natives are shocked when they try to
enter the interior and the ship sails away.

The first half of the book ends with one of the Nautilus crew being buried in an
undersea graveyard.

In the second half, Nautilus
continues on her voyage and Conseil lists page after page of sea life, which to
a modern reader wanting to “cut to the chase” drags the story down in a hurry.

Arriving at Ceylon, the crew stops to watch and explain the
oyster fishery and the nature of the pearls that the animals produce.

Captain Nemo decides that he will head the Nautilus in the direction of the Red Sea
and ultimately to the Mediterranean. The only problem is that the newly opened
Suez Canal isn’t deep enough for the Nautilus to operate in Nemo’s manner.
Arronax is amazed that Nemo would tell him that even though they wouldn’t
transit the canal they would still be in the Mediterranean the next day. It
turns out that Nemo had discovered an underground tunnel he named “The Arabian
Tunnel” through which the Nautilus would pass beneath the Suez Canal on its way
to the Mediterranean Sea.

After an extremely fast passage through the Tunnel, the
voyagers arrive in the Mediterranean. Nemo takes them to experience an
underwater volcanic activity before turning the ship toward the Strait of
Gibraltar. Ned Land contemplates taking the ship’s pinnace and escaping but is
thwarted by the speed of the ship.

Heading toward the port of Viga where a treasure fleet was
scuttled to save it from the English, Nemo sends his crew out of the ship to
retrieve all the gold and silver still remaining in the wrecks. His ultimate
goal for the specie since he has no use of it is to help the poor, which M.
Arronax finds laudable.

Ned Land’s plan to escape the ship is thwarted again by
Nautilus heading southward. Reaching the Sargasso Sea more information about
the environment is forthcoming. Then Captain Nemo turns southward again.

The ship finds a passage to an underground grotto formed by
an ancient volcano. Arronax provides a running commentary on all the flora and
fauna the voyagers encounter.

Again, Ned cannot escape the ship because it is in the open
sea after Captain Nemo shows the voyagers the remains of Atlantis. It appears
as though Nemo intends to take the Nautilus to the South Pole.

And after a dangerous passage beneath the ice and land they
arrive at the South Pole (years earlier than it was actually discovered).
Attempting to exit the ice traps Nautilus and the voyagers appeared doomed to
die from either suffocation or being crushed by the ice.

Escaping the frozen prison Nemo heads Nautilus north toward
the Amazon River nexus with the Atlantic Ocean.

Another catalog of fauna and then more travel northward.

Somewhere off the Antilles, the voyagers run into giant
poulps, a type of cuttlefish. One of them attacks the crew and kills the man.
Nemo and the others use axes to hack off the arms of the poulps before the
attackers leave and the Nautilus can go back to its normal cruise.

Off the American coast Nautilus runs into a hurricane and
has to dive to a considerable depth to escape the fury of the waves.

Continuing north and east Ned determines that they can
escape the ship when they are near the coast of Norway.

Unfortunately Nemo steers toward the Maelstrom, a vast
whirlpool in the sea that swallows ships. Ned, Arronax and Conseil work the
side of the ship to gain entrance to the pinnace.

Verne wrote himself into a corner and had to rely on that
ancient device of the deus ex machina to get the pinnace free of the Maelstrom
while Nautilus was sucked into the depths.

If you saw the movie of the same name you will have no
trouble getting through the sometimes difficult and oftentimes boring passages
that Verne used to captivate his audiences. The book is not a page turner and
many readers will either skim it or put it down after reading some of the
catalogs that Verne was keen on using. As far as a grade goes it probably lands
in the B category, although that might be generous.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

The previous note indicated that coincidence is a dangerous
tool in the hands of an author. So it was in the case of “Always a Cop.” Paul
Wagner used it to get his story started and it was almost enough to make me
quit reading his book. However, I picked it up again and got very much
interested in the characters he developed. The story is a two-fold mystery that
piques the interest of three retired policemen.

Wagner describes the men to a
“T” and with all their frailties and foibles they set about trying to find the
bad guys responsible for the unrelated crimes. Beauregard or Beau is the main
protagonist and he has to be one of the biggest advocates for Viagra as he is
on call for many of the women he contacts both in his boarding house and when
he rides his bicycle around town.

His partner, Finncannon, suffers from Alzheimer’s as he sits
in his retirement home. Beau visits him and at times they reminisce. With the
disappearance of a high priority girl whose father is a legislator, the game is
afoot and the old cops get involved.

One of the minor characters in Beau’s past life comes with
the tale of his granddaughter who has disappeared and he would like Beau’s help
in finding her.

The third member of the “cop squad” is Matso, a Japanese-American
golfer that knows no bounds to his love
of the game. He is tasked with going to Mexico to run down either info or
pictures of the girl who has gone missing. His adventures are almost comic
relief to the story.

As the story progresses and the clues are examined by all
the old cops and Beau’s daughter who is also a detective, some unusual twists
occur including Beau being knocked off his bicycle and subsequently suffering
temporary amnesia.

The story takes on a global nature as one particular clue,
an uncut diamond, links the various young girl murders around the world.

In what a reader expects, the two crimes are solved and Beau
finds that he is asked to find another person setting us up for a continuation
of the old cop story.

Though not a page turner, the time spent reading this novel
will fill those hours when ennui sets in.

Friday, May 22, 2015

The title refers to a space in time when two or more related
or unrelated events occur simultaneously. When we experience this phenomenon it
usually isn’t earth shaking although it does provide an item of conversation
that can be shared.

On the other hand, using coincidence in a fictional sense is
dangerous because it immediately challenges the reader to hold onto disbelief
at the same time that the reader’s inner voice is shouting wait a minute.

If an author uses a coincidental meeting to begin his or her
tale the inappropriateness becomes glaringly apparent. It might even result in
an otherwise good story being consigned to the oblivion of being unread.

Coincidence is
much like the god in the machine device that early writers used to solve the
painted-into-a-corner problem with the plot. Both devices strain the reader’s
ability to suspend disbelief and have usually been consigned to the same trash
can as hackneyed and trite phrases. However, when an author does revert to
using the coincidental appearance of a character or event a modern reader
throws up his or her metaphorical hands and is bumped out of the story. Only
dogged determination will cause the reader to once again take up the tale,
perhaps to find that disbelief can once again be suspended to enjoy an
otherwise well-told piece of fiction.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

The Political Zoo
gives Michael Savage’s take on many political players. Some describe career pols while others
are of entertainers that have entered the political fray with their sometimes
inane comments that are only broadcast because of the celebrity status of the
speaker.

Each person is lampooned in an introductory page with a
caricature of the individual and a pseudoscientific name. Once Savage turns the
page and gets into a description of the animal so named in the introduction he
proceeds to list peccadilloes, outright lies and past history of the insider
advantage that many of them have used to build their own fortunes. There is no
rock for these pols to hide under when it comes to Savage’s investigations.

If you’ve forgotten the pattern the pol has relapsed to time
and time again, Savage reminds you in a very entertaining way. And though
seeming venomous, the descriptions and facts are not nearly as poisonous as the
acts themselves. What Savage is getting at is the undermining of the body
politic by these lawful but despicable acts.

Many of these political animals have no compunction when it
comes to putting their families on the payroll, even when the jobs they are
purported to do conflict with the legislation that the pol is either working on
or has influence over.

Savage is much like Sisyphus in his lashing out at the pol’s
behavior because they, in his estimation, are exactly like the people who have
elected them, somewhat petty, greedy and willing to cut almost any corner to
achieve their ends. Pushing that political boulder up the hill of Machiavellian
misdeeds only to have it roll down to the bottom requiring another round of
examination and reportage is, alas, what appears to be an inevitability
inherent in our political system.

Friday, May 8, 2015

First there’s fame and then the grave. Might be something
that George would have said. In his thoroughly iconoclastic approach to
entertainment he garnered numerous awards and performance dates (some of which
are on You Tube).

His book “Napalm and Silly Putty” is filled with what his
audience has come to expect—language that dives into the gutter and soars into
impeccable logic. It’s fun to read but the staggering carom of his thoughts
makes a straight reading of the book nearly impossible (except for Carlin
junkies).

His title derives from what he considered two of the most
important inventions that mankind ever came up with. One to wipe out as many
humans as the jellied gasoline could contact and the other to provide endless
hours of harmless fun.

Carlin’s take on napalm permeates the book as he is
constantly making allusions to devices and methods that would eliminate the
most people at one fell swoop. Part of it was his shtick, but I suspect that
there was something deep down that didn’t really like people in general all
that much.

So George had his fame and now is no longer among the
living. Having spent seventy years doing essentially what he wanted to do, one
can be tolerant of the negative behaviors that probably shortened his life.

If you want some chuckles and a few belly laughs then pick
up a copy you won’t regret it.

Friday, May 1, 2015

A friend who is also a writer had a book signing that
heralded the publication of her book that chronicled the adventure of a young
girl solving a mystery with Sherlock Holmes’ help. The event was well attended
by friends, members of her writing group and other aspiring writers.

During a question and answer period Elizabeth who goes by
the sobriquet “Mitty” was asked a number of questions about how she came to
write the book, how she decided on the name of the girl who is the main
character and whether she talks to her characters and whether they talk to her.

I’ve never thought about that last question but it does
pique my interest. As I wrote back to her I don’t really talk to the people who
inhabit my books, but they do seem to have minds of their own as the twists and
turns of the story proceed in ways that writing on the fly doesn’t always
prepare me for. I don’t know whether thinking about the characters constitutes
a dialog, although what I hear them saying does more often than not appear on
the page.

Getting the tone right for a particular character is
difficult at times and often requires an edit to bring the latest utterance in
line with the general “voice” the character presents. I suspect that others
walk through a similar sequence to make sure their characters don’t step out of
“character.”

Monday, April 20, 2015

Frankenstein is the be-all and end-all of names in the
horror pantheon. Actually what has become the appellation for the monster was
actually the doctor’s name (Victor) who created the monster, but in the common
mind his name has been attached to the monster so ably portrayed by Boris
Karloff.

Reading Mary Shelley’s book of the same name, one hoped to
find some correlation between the exciting and somewhat terrifying films of the
late nineteen thirties. Unfortunately, the novel and the films appear to come
from different parts of the solar system.

In a tortured beginning replete with all the Victorianisms
that are so stultifying to read, Victor finds the secret of life and bestows it
upon a creature he puts together from the deceased elements of other men.
Unlike the film he does not graft a diseased brain upon the frame of the “fiend.”

Once he gives life to the creature he is done with him and
the book travels merrily along until one of Victor’s siblings (William) is
brutally murdered. Victor thinks that the creature he created must be the
guilty party. However, Justine, one of the members of the Frankenstein
household, is found to have part of the locket that William was wearing when he
was killed.

Justine is tried, convicted and put to death. Victor laments
the fact that he didn’t say anything that might have contributed to her
exoneration. There is a great deal of soul searching that goes on interminably
in the novel along with non-juicy gossip.

Finally, Victor meets with his creation and wants to destroy
it, but the creature tells him to hold off, that he has a story to tell.

The creature goes on interminably about how he came to meet
a family that he has great affection for. Victor listens with more patience
that this reader has.

The creature finally ends his tale by telling Victor exactly
how he murdered William and planted the evidence on Justine who was tried,
convicted and executed.

Waiting for Victor to respond the creature demands a female
like himself. Victor says that he will never do such a thing. The creature says
that if Victor does what the monster wants he will take the female and go to
South America to live in the jungle to be free of the disgust and horror of the
people who have seen him.

Victor goes to England, providing a guide tour to all the
sights along the way.

After England Victor goes to the Orkney Islands off the
northern coast where he begins his experiment to create a female monster. The
real monster somehow has found him out and curses him since he has not created
the female so desired by the fiend.

Victor destroys the female parts and dumps them in the sea.
After a harrowing voyage he ends up in Ireland and is treated harshly because
the Irish think he is responsible for the death of a man recently discovered on
the same shore that Victor has landed on.

By coincidence the dead man is Henry Clerval, Victor’s
long-time friend. He is duly shocked and then thrown in jail. Victor’s father
comes to visit him and after being exonerated of the crime, father and son take
ship for Europe and their home in Switzerland.

After much ado, Victor decides to marry his “cousin”
Elizabeth even though the monster has vowed to make their wedding night a
shambles.

The wedding takes place. Victor and Elizabeth take boat to
one of the lake resorts. Victor is well armed with knife and pistols if they
are needed for a confrontation with the fiend. He hears a scream and Elizabeth
has been murdered. He is distraught.

Victor returns home to bring the bad news to his father, who subsequently dies.

Then Victor goes on another trip to find the monster. This
trip takes him across Europe, Russia and finally ends up in the frozen north.
The creature eludes him, but a storm does not. He is rescued by ship whose
captain listens to Victor’s tale and can hardly believe it.

As the crew is about to mutiny, Victor falls in and dies.

The captain enters Victor’s cabin to see the monster
gloating over Victor’s death. The captain listens to the ranting of the monster
before the monster leaps out the cabin window not to be seen again.

Coincidence, artifice
and plain old stilted writing make this book a very difficult read. One wonders
how many readers will slog through to the end. I only did so to round out this
blog.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

1963. Gunter Grass’ book “The Tin Drum” was on my reading
list. It was his approach to trying to make sense of what the Nazi’s had done
to his country. Whether he was part of the regime may or may not be true, but
his disaffection with it certainly was. So it was a memory jog when I read of
his death yesterday. All those years ago and at least one of the images from
the book still remains: the dwarf finding refuge under the ballooning skirt of
a frau. I suspect that Grass was using the image as a metaphor for trying to
escape the despicable behavior of most of his fellow Germans.

Now the memory of
the horrors of Hitler’s attempt to subjugate the rest of us has dimmed with the
evaporation of time. Still, it’s important to remember what an ideologue can do
with enough support and I suspect that is the lesson for today and the threat
that ISIS poses. Hitler had his triumph when the Brits allowed him to get away
with terrorizing Austria and the other countries that formed what was known as “Lebensraum—“
the need for Germany to expand no matter what the cost to other entities or
states. Today, many in the US don’t see any threat from the Islamic radicals
and I suspect that they are analogous to the Brits and Americans who didn’t see
any threat from Hitler or Hirohito. I surely hope that we are not doomed to
repeat history because we have forgotten it.

Saturday, April 11, 2015

You can read Wind,
Sand and Stars to understand what a beginning pilot has to deal with flying
from a small airfield in France in the 1930’s. You can also read the book to
find out what flying in North Africa was like. Mostly you’ll find that the
translated French is poetic and thought provoking.

You’ll see what a tribal king thinks of himself as a slave.
A slave that the pilot who is telling this story is bound to free and return to
his home.

An almost off the cuff flight from France to Vietnam tells
the story of a crash and survival of the pilot and his mechanic as they strive
to find a way out of the barren stretch of desert they are trapped in.

The last part of the story gives you an insight into the
Civil War in Spain during the last years of the thirties. The pilot compares
the war to a plague (and that brings thoughts of Camus’ “The Plague” to mind).
The men who are fighting either for or against the regime are only
differentiated by how they view the same principles.

The language in the book is poetic and there is more than a
bit of philosophy in the passages that describe the pilot’s reaction to his
friends, the environment and the people therein.

The book is not a page turner, but it is quite interesting
and worth the time to peruse.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Nathaniel West is a pen name for Nathan Weinstein, an award
winning novelist. He was in New York City at the same time as Dashiell Hammett
and they had a peculiar friendship. West extended credit to Hammett so that he
could use a room in the hotel that West was managing. Hammett tolerated West
but only saw him as a second rate Jew.

If you wish to read my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
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Sunday, February 1, 2015

Finished reading an interesting biography of Dashiell
Hammett that my son Thomas gave me for Christmas. Never knew he was a Pinkerton
detective. And some of the anecdotes the author attributes to Hammett are
really amusing. Hammett was also involved in the Fatty Arbuckle case when that
scandal broke. Rather than being on the side of the prosecution he was trying
to gather information that would provide the defense more ammo.

Reading about his breaking into writing with all the pulp stories
in The Black Mask (later Black Mask) reminded me of the difficulties of getting
the words right as well as the characters and the plot, if any. His first
stories were vignettes and as well written as a beginner could hope to expect.
Later his work achieved some degree of polish until he finally crossed somewhat
of a literary milestone when The Maltese
Falcon was published.

Reading about how a writer constructed his work as told through
the lens of another writer is very difficult for me and I tend to skim that
part of the story. What I find interesting is all the ins and outs of his life
when not writing. He was the kind of man who wanted to have as much money as he
could get (hiring two agents to try to maximize his earnings in both books and
movies). The ironic thing about the money part was that he couldn’t or wouldn’t
hang on to the cash once he got it.

And when he didn’t have the dough he would skip out on hotel
bills or any other IOU that he’d signed.

Hammett was a boozer of the first class and evidently women
found him irresistible. One of the females who dumped her husband and became
one of Hammett’s best friends was Lillian Hellman. They had a frantic
relationship and the rest of the story is interesting but somewhat depressing
so it’s not the kind of biography you read for inspiration.